EHM The Blue Line

Hey guys, I decided a little while ago I wanted to try doing something for fun in my free time. Basically, I want to create a fantasy NHL and AHL, possibly even the ECHL, and add some new teams, move some teams, change the teams around, and give everyone team a new name. I've currently got 30 NHL and AHL teams (I know if I am going to put them in the DB I will have to change this number as I don't believe there is room for 30 AHL teams). My goal is to finalize my locations and names, give them color schemes, and if I have time, eventually put them into a database (probably the original DB). I will then probably do a fantasy draft (prospects included), and use all faked names to make things more interesting. I think this would be a good way to freshen up the game for me, and will hold me over until the next Lidas DB comes out (or I get a PS3 and NHL 12).

So first I'm going to list my 30 NHL teams and their current names I came up with. Some of the names I really like and probably won't change, others I hate but wanted to come up with something. I'm starting this thread to help get some ideas for names and possible other locations (and even color schemes). Like I said, I will probably try and eventually put them into the DB and maybe even make it available, but for now it's just a fun little side project I wanted to try.

So, here's my current list of NHL teams/locations...any new name suggestions/criticisms or different locations would be greatly appreciated. And if you want the reasoning behind my current names I'll gladly give it:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Pacific Northwest:
Emerald City Thunderbirds (Seattle, WA)
Alaska Bears (Anchorage, AK)
Vancouver Whitecaps (Vancouver, BC, CAN)
Edmonton Diggers (Edmonton, AB, CAN
Portland Meadowlarks (Portland, OR)

Southwest:
Los Angeles Gridlock (Los Angeles, CA)
San Jose Wildfire (San Jose, CA)
Colorado Mountaineers (Denver, CO)
Salt Lake Speedsters (Salt Lake City, UT)
Arizona Dust Devils (Phoenix, AZ)

Midwest:
Indiana Hoosiers (Indianapolis, IN)
Chicago Express (Chicago, IL)
Milwaukee Badgers (Milwaukee, WI)
Twin City Timberwolves (Minneapolis, MN)
Winnipeg Moose (Winnipeg, MB, CAN)

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Upper North:
Toronto Knights (Toronto, ON, CAN)
Montreal Metros (Montreal, QC, CAN)
Columbus Copperheads (Columbus, OH)
Motor City Thrashers (Detroit, MI)
Buffalo Blizzard (Buffalo, NY)

North-Atlantic:
New Jersey Bulldogs (Newark, NJ)
New York Americans (New York, NY)
Philadelphia Colonials (Philadelphia, PA)
Boston Militiamen (Boston, MA)
Washington Rebels (Washington D.C., DC)

South:
Texas Bandits (Houston, TX)
Carolina Equalizers (Charlotte, NC)
Atlanta Resurgens (Atlanta, GA)
Jacksonville Rivermen (Jacksonville, FL)
Norfolk Ironclads (Norfolk, VA)


And my list of AHL locations (with a few quick names I thought of):
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Northwest:
(Spokane, WA)
(Surrey, BC, CAN)
(Boise, ID)
(Calgary, AB, CAN)
Billings Bulls (Billings MT)

Southwest:
New Mexico Rattlers (Albuquerque, NM)
(Anaheim, CA)
(Dallas, TX)
Las Vegas High Rollers (Las Vegas, NV)
(San Antonio, TX)

Upper Midwest:
(Thunder Bay, ON, CAN)
Omaha Thunder (Omaha, NE)
(Fargo, ND)
Kansas City Twisters (Kansas City, MO)
(St. Cloud, MN)

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Eastern Great Lakes:
(Cleveland, OH)
(Pittsburgh, PA)
(Erie, PA)
(Lansing, MI)
(Mississauga, ON, CAN)

Northeast:
(Ottawa, ON, CAN)
(Syracuse, NY)
(Hartford, CT)
(Portland, ME)
(Wilmington, DE)

Southeast:
(Raleigh, NC)
(Memphis, TN)
(Richmond, VA)
(Orlando, FL)
(Cincinnati, OH)

I've done a similar thing for the NHL. And I might actually start doing a little story thing about it with season reviews and newspaper style articles. We'll see

Here is my setup:
http://imageshack.us/f/819/nhlfantasymakeup.jpg

pens66 wrote:I've done a similar thing for the NHL. And I might actually start doing a little story thing about it with season reviews and newspaper style articles. We'll see

Here is my setup:
http://imageshack.us/f/819/nhlfantasymakeup.jpg

Awesome! That's actually helping give me some ideas for possible new team names/locations. I've already got some color schemes in mind for many of them, but I'll add those later after I get them all named and finalized (no point giving them a color scheme if I change their name). I love that you gave them all "custom" logos! It looks like you found appropriate existing logos and recolored them for your teams pretty much...not sure I have the time or talent to do that (or the software). We'll see, one step at a time, and step one is team names and locations, then colors, then getting everything put into a database correctly.

I got all those custom logos (and tons more) via the OOTP forums. I basically just chose the cities for my league and then searched through the logos what nickname would fit. So the colour scheme was given by the custom logo. It makes it a littler easier. You don't have to make up the color scheme

Can't Believe it's been so long since I updated this. I've kind of been on and off this project over the past few months due to a change of jobs, moving, and a lot of other stuff (sometimes just no time or motivation or desire to do it)...but lately I've been getting back into it. Anyway, I have my new NHL almost completely done, including the team names, arenas, capacity/attendances, colors, reps, etc (only budget, money, training, and fan support left to update). Also, I'm trying to get logos for each of the teams if I can...most will probably be existing logos out there but re-colored and such for the new teams. Now, I have ZERO experience doing this, so if someone wants to help me out, it would be greatly appreciated...otherwise logos will be the last thing on my list. Below is my list of NHL teams, locations are pretty much a lock, some names are open for re-naming suggestions (many are not), so if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

WESTERN CONFERENCE
Northwest:
Emerald City Thunderbirds (Seattle, WA)
Alaska Bears (Anchorage, AK)
Vancouver Whitecaps (Vancouver, BC, CAN)
Edmonton Diggers (Edmonton, AB, CAN
Portland Meadowlarks (Portland, OR)

Pacific:
Los Angeles Gridlock (Los Angeles, CA)
San Jose Wildfire (San Jose, CA)
Colorado Mountaineers (Denver, CO)
Kansas City Mohawks (Kansas City, KS)
Arizona Dust Devils (Phoenix, AZ)

Central:
Indiana Hoosiers (Indianapolis, IN)
Chicago Express (Chicago, IL)
Milwaukee Mavericks (Milwaukee, WI)
Twin City Timberwolves (Minneapolis, MN)
Winnipeg Moose (Winnipeg, MB, CAN)

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Northeast:
Toronto Knights (Toronto, ON, CAN)
Montreal Metros (Montreal, QC, CAN)
Columbus Copperheads (Columbus, OH)
Motor City Mechanics (Detroit, MI)
Buffalo Blizzard (Buffalo, NY)

Atlantic:
New Jersey Bulldogs (Newark, NJ)
New York Americans (New York, NY)
Philadelphia Rebels (Philadelphia, PA)
Boston Militia (Boston, MA)
Washington Patriots (Washington D.C., DC)

Southeast:
Texas Bandits (Houston, TX)
Carolina Equalizers (Charlotte, NC)
Atlanta Resurgens (Atlanta, GA)
Jacksonville Rivermen (Jacksonville, FL)
Norfolk Ironclads (Norfolk, VA)


And here is my current list of AHL teams (I know I will have to change the number to fit EHM, but I wanted to think of a 30 team list first). Now since I haven't done any work with any of these teams, I'm completely open to suggestions of different locations or any team names. Also, I'll probably be updating this list over the next few days as I get more time to come up with some names:
West:
New Mexico Rattlers (Albuquerque, NM)
Dallas Outlaws (Dallas, TX)
Las Vegas Aces (Las Vegas, NV)
San Antonio Rangers (San Antonio, TX)
Oklahoma City Chargers (Oklahoma City, OK)
Spokane Koments (Spokane, WA)
Billings Bulls (Billings, MT)
California Quake (San Francisco, CA)

North:
Thunder Bay IceDogs (Thunder Bay, ON, CAN)
Omaha Thunder (Omaha, NE)
Fargo Freeze (Fargo, ND)
St. Cloud Sentinels (St. Cloud, MN)
Madison Icehawks (Madison, WI)
Calgary Stampede (Calgary, AB, CAN)

Atlantic:
Hamilton Tigers (Hamilton, ON, CAN)
Syracuse Chiefs (Syracuse, NY)
Hartford Dragons (Hartfort, CT)
Portland Mariners (Portlant, ME)
Quebec Huskies (Quebec, QC, CAN)
Harrisburgh Hellions (Harrisburg, PA)
Erie Phantoms (Erie, PA)

East:
Carolina Checkers (Raleigh, NC)
Richmond Renegades (Richmond, VA)
Florida Hurricanes (Orlando, FL)
Cincinnati Blades (Cincinnati, OH)
Nashville Nighthawks (Nashville, TN)
Cleveland Warriors (Cleveland, OH)
Michigan Lancers (Lansing, MI)

Ok, I have worked hard the past few days and gotten the NHL, AHL, and ECHL updates done, as well as affiliations. Updated the list above with all the current NHL/AHL teams. ECHL I modified slightly to include most of the current teams, and had to give them a few extra and leave some defunct teams there due to the number of teams (25 vs. 18 left in real life). There's also a couple CHL teams in there, but for now I'm not going to go back and change those or change the CHL team, there will just be 2 of them for now (I want to play already lol). Last night I loaded her up, did a Fantasy Draft w/prospects (as that was the way I was intending to play to make the teams random)...only problem was that by 2012, Twin City Timberwolves won ALL the cups for the NHL, Calgary for the AHL. Thinking just a fantasy draft w/o prospects might work.

Anyway, the last thing I have to do is logos, which can be on-going as they can be put in during the game, don't require the pre-game editor. I know how to get the logos into the folders and get them to work, my problem is changing colors on the logo...I have ZERO experience with this and no skills at all here, so if someone would be willing to maybe help me out or show me how to do it, I would be really greatful. Oh, and if anyone wants information on any of the teams, I have a spreadsheet with all that...I tried to make much of it as realistic as possible, but never messed with the database this much before so who knows if it will all work out in the end (maybe Twin City is destined to dominate).

BTW, here's the list of ECHL teams:
ECHL Teams:
Augusta Lynx
Bakersfield Condors
Chicago Rail
Colorado Eagles
Columbia Inferno
Elmira Jackals
Florida Everblades
Greensboro Generals
Greenville Road Warriors
Gwinnett Gladiators
Idaho Steelheads
Las Vegas Wranglers
Ontario Reign
Orlando Solar Bears
Pittsburgh Prowlers
Reading Royals
Phoenix Roadrunners
San Antonio Rangers
South Carolina Stingrays
Stockton Thunder
Toledo Walleye
Trenton Titans
Utah Grizzlies
Wheeling Nailers
Wichita Thunder